WEANING PROGRAM
Forage situation provides opportunity to
capitalize on ideal weight range class
A
By Michael Grahmann
month ago, this article was already written
and the main topic was drought management,
including what should we do with our fall
weaning with the lack of forage in the area.
How things change in a couple of weeks. As the
old saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in Texas, just
wait thirty minutes!
With the recent rains over most of our coverage area, the
forage is exploding in pastures, setting most producers up
for a great early fall. This available forage makes it possible
to extend marketing options on this year’s calf crop, which
is a good situation with the current state of grain and cattle
markets. Currently, the markets are unpredictable with a
majority of the pressure coming from a combination of
factors involving where the grain storage is, climate, and
global trade. Locally, we are beginning harvest with the
predictions of significantly less grain in the area than in
years past. Local volume in combination with a Midwest
crop that is still in the early stages has driven our local
basis to more than $1/bushel higher than the board price.
As we get closer to getting the Midwest crop in the bins,
the basis should gain some stability, which will in turn help
stabilize our cattle prices moving forward. With all that
being said, cattle markets have been relatively stable for
the past few months. Fed cattle prices are still driving the
feeder cattle prices, and without a bump in next spring’s fed
cattle, the feeder cattle prices for this fall should maintain
stability at current levels.
The current environmental conditions in combination
with the market environment will make weaning programs
a good management option to optimize the value of the calf
crop. Currently, pricing on 750 to 850 lbs calves in Novem-
ber is fairly strong considering the other market classes.
This class of cattle maintains that price strength because
feedyards are confident that the cattle will finish in time to
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be marketed during the stronger fed cattle markets in spring
2019. Fortunately, producers in our area have the forage
available along with supplemental nutrition to get the calf
crop to those weight ranges by mid-November. Other parts
of Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma are not as fortunate
as they are facing a very dry climate and limited forage. The
environmental factors give our producers an opportunity to
capitalize on the forage Mother Nature has provided, and we
can get these calves heavier relatively inexpensively.
The success of a weaning program depends on the cattle
getting off to a good start. A good start is achieved by
working with your veterinarian and United Ag Beef Cattle
Specialist to design a sound animal health and nutrition
program for your calves at weaning. The combination of
good nutrition and good animal health at the start of a
weaning program increases the chances of great success
through the feeding period. The advent of the Veterinary
Feed Directive on AS700 containing starter feeds has
reduced the use of this antibiotic by producers in the past
year. However, with proper planning by the producer and
United Ag Cattle Specialist, the VFD is not impossible
to obtain, and we recommend the use of AS700 in our
Purina Preconditioning & Receiving Chow, Accuration
Cattle Starter and Texas Commercial Cattle Starter. AS700
in combination with a good animal health program has
proven valuable locally over the years as a preventative to
outbreaks of respiratory problems in ranch-raised weaned
cattle. By helping the cattle in all ways possible for those
first two weeks of weaning, producers set the cattle up to
fully capitalize on the performance genetics over the last 60
to 90 days of the preconditioning period.
For the majority of producers, the targeted gain on a calf
is 200 lbs. in 100 days to reach that 750 to 850 lb. window.
With this as our target, we know that our warm season
grasses in the fall will not support gains at the level of two
pounds per day. However, these grasses provide a great
foundation and forage source that allow the inclusion of